What’s £1 Worth?

August 22, 2017

What’s £1 Worth?

Seems like a silly question really. A £1 is a £1 of course - no more, no less.

But how much of your time is it worth? Now this is an entirely different question, but one raised recently by Jonathan Margolis, a journalist for the Financial Times, who got a coin stuck in his shopping trolley.

This prompted him to reach out to us at Attest, because he wondered how the rest of the UK would react. How long would they wait to get £1 back?

To find the answer based on real input from across the UK, we ran a survey to a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers and sent over the results.

Here are some of the other interesting findings digging deeper into the results.

Binary split: Time is more precious than money… except for ‘the 17%’.

50% of people surveyed would not even wait two minutes to retrieve their pound coin from a shopping trolley; with a further 26% not willing to wait more than 5 minutes.

This means 76% of Brits are valuing their time at more than £12.00 per hour (those not willing to wait a minute are placing a value of £60 per hour on their time).

The National Living Wage is currently £7.50 for those aged over 25, which means 3/4 of the UK are valuing their time at 60% above the living wage, while 50% would need to be on an annual wage of at least £62,400 to justify their unwillingness to wait even 2 minutes for their money back.

However at the other end of the spectrum, a full 17% will wait 'as long as it takes', which probably can’t be justified on any economic terms, meaning it can only be explained as being motivated on principle.

u30 males, Yorkshire and Midlands quickest to walk away

Those least likely to give their £1 a second thought, being unwilling to wait even a minute, are more likely to work in London, the North East or Wales; while those willing to wait just 1-2 minutes were most likely to work in the South West, East, North West or East Midlands.

Diving even deeper, males under 30 working in London and the South East were 59% more likely than the average population to not be willing to wait a minute. However they are a very polarised group, with a quarter being 47% more likely to wait as long as it takes.

Those in Yorkshire and Humber and the West Midlands were also more likely to be willing to wait as long as it takes.

It’s no surprise that actually income has a big factor on willingness to wait.

For those with a household income of £75k and above, they were 88% more likely to wait less than a minute for their pound back. Which is actually still not justifiable. £1 per minute equates to an annual income of £124,800 (assuming 8 hour days, 5 day weeks, 52 weeks a year).

It just goes to show how bad we can be at calculating the actual value of our time.

On the other end of the spectrum, those earning less than £15,000 a year were 41% more likely to be willing to wait as long as it takes.

UK population: full of surprises.

Economists love to treat people as rational, predictable economic animals. This research shows just how bad we are at rationally valuing our time, with the vast majority of people willing to pay a premium for their time.

We’ve talked through this research with several clients. Before showing the results, we asked senior Marketers, Innovators and Business Directors to guess how the UK population would react on this issue. In short, nobody was even close… the best guesses about how people will respond were wildly wrong.

The moral of the story? Whenever you’re guessing, stop and think. It’s highly unlikely that you’re going to be right (or even close). As the FT put it: “There is clearly a complex emotional relationship with coinage, which transcends logic”. Don’t guess, test.

Related posts

Who's going to stand out this year? Will brands that took a battering in 2017 make a statement in 2018? Will it be the year of challenger brands or incumbents?

To bring you answers to these questions (and more), we reached out to 5 experts with very different backgrounds across startups, content, social media, experiential marketing and audio to share their unique perspectives on who are the brands to watch in 2018.

Monzo: The digital mobile-only challenger bank saw nearly half a million new users sign up for its services and claim their bright orange bank cards last year. Monzo is a fantastic way to manage your budget thanks to their instant updates in the app showing you how much you've just spent, and provide added value when used abroad thanks to their free withdrawls up to £200.

Having just received their full UK banking license from the FCA and PRA in 2017, Monzo is rolling out "the best current account in the world". With their slick app and excellent communication, they are playing to millennials by offering a unique customer experience and we're set to see even more new banking features in 2018.

Sanctus: The mental health startup based in London has the vision to create the world's first mental health gym, where people can go and work out their mental health fitness as they would their physical fitness. Right now, the company is working with businesses to create space within a company for people to take time off and talk to a Sanctus coach. In 2018, the company aims to work with 50 business partners and continue to spread awareness of mental health. FounderJames Routledgewrites an excellent weekly newsletter on mental health and growing the startup, which is honestly written and is well worth a read.

Neom Organics:Hot off the heels of significant new investment, this Harrogate-based beauty and wellbeing brand is set to launch a new range of products in 2018, as well as new retail stores both in the UK and abroad. Neom was found by two friends, one of which was an ex Glamour magazine editor who realised her own wellbeing, and that of her close friends, was affected by the stress and demands of modern life. She quit journalism to train as an aromatherapist and nutritionist before founding Neom. The brand's products focus on improving people’s wellbeing through home fragrances and skincare.

My first pick is Pepsi. Lets be honest, Pepsi had an awful 2017 from a brand perspective, they created what they thought was going to be a work of advertising art, an ad that would change the world, but instead it turned them into a global laughing stock.

This is also on a backdrop of huge backlash and increased legislation against sugary drinks. The days when all they had to worry about was competing against Coca-Cola are probably looked on with nostalgia by the marketing team. However Pepsi are a brand with true marketing pedigree, iconic campaigns, partnerships and experiences.

I’m really interested to see how they come back. The test of a great brand is how they react when they are at their lowest. I will be watching Pepsi closely in 2018 to see what they have planned.

My second one to watch for 2018, is the darling of the Aim, BooHoo. The online based fashion retailer has gone through exceptional growth over the last few years, along with some very smart acquisitions.

However they are now at the point where brand building is becoming as important as performance marketing. I expect an innovative business such as BooHoo to evolve its marketing activity to ensure it not only continues its business growth but becomes a brand leader in its own right.

This will be a year to watch brands take the design aspect of their branding in new and exciting directions.